Despite Bombing, Paper Is Published

By DON TERRY

Published: March 2, 1989

The Riverdale Press appeared on Bronx newsstands as scheduled yesterday with a defiant editorial on its front page, vowing that the paper ''will not be silenced.'' The day before, a firebomb was hurled through a plate glass window of the paper's small office.

The bomb damaged the first-floor reception area and newsroom, forcing the staff of the 39-year-old weekly to finish putting out the newspaper from a cramped office in another location.

As the shaken employees began work on next week's issue and searched for a larger temporary office to accommodate the staff of 24, almost 60 Federal and local law-enforcement officers continued to search for clues and suspects in the Tuesday morning attack.

''We're running down an awful lot of leads,'' said Deputy Inspector Donald E. Moss of the Bronx detectives. ''But I wouldn't describe any one of them as the main lead at this point.''

A man with a mustache was seen running from the area of the building shortly after the fire began. Criticism of Bookstores

Inspector Moss said the leads included an intense basketball rivalry between two private Bronx schools that may have erupted in fiery vandalism last week and the international uproar surrounding the novel ''The Satanic Verses'' and its author, Salman Rushdie.

Last week, the newspaper printed an editorial chastising major bookstore chains for removing copies of the novel from their shelves after Muslims offended by the novel joined Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's call for Mr. Rushdie's death.

''But we didn't get any threats, any warnings, nothing except the bomb,'' said Richard L. Stein, the co-publisher of the newspaper along with his brother, Bernard. ''I can't imagine any reason for it, other than something we wrote. Whatever the reason for it, we're not going to change.''

The impact of the bombing at the newspaper was also felt in Washington.

Hours after the bomb crashed into the newspaper's office at 6155 Broadway at 4:30 A.M., President Bush ordered the Justice Department to investigate the incident and two similar bombings of bookstores in Berkeley, Calif. The stores had sold copies of Mr. Rushdie's book. 'Riled a Lot of People'

But Bernard Stein said he was skeptical of the Rushdie connection. He said the newspaper has printed many controversial editorials over the years, including one 13 months ago that was critical of Israel's handling of events on the West Bank.

Inspector Moss said the authorities are also investigating the possible connection between the Riverdale Press bombing and an incident last Friday at a private school, the Horace Mann School.

Shortly before 5 A.M. someone crashed through the school's fence with a stolen car and then smashed the car into the building's cafeteria, which caught on fire, he said.

Horace Mann and another private school, the Riverdale Country School, were to play a charity basketball game that evening. The two schools have been playing the game for more than 30 years.

School officials closed Horace Mann for the day after the car incident, and Riverdale also closed because of a forecast of a heavy snowstorm. The headmasters agreed to cancel the game. Possible Connection Examined

Then early Monday morning, the Riverdale headmaster was awakened by a telephone call at his home. The caller threatened to blow the school up if it opened that morning, the inspector said.

''We're checking to see if the incidents are connected because they happened so close together,'' he said.

The Riverdale Press was founded by Mr. Stein's parents, David and Celia, in 1950. David Stein died in 1982.

''We're in business,'' said a beaming Celia Stein. ''Now, we have to figure out how we're going to get next week's paper out. But we will. We haven't missed a deadline in 39 years.''